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    Kevin Rudd will remain as Australia’s ambassador to US, Anthony Albanese says

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    Anthony Albanese says Kevin Rudd will remain as Australia’s ambassador to Washington despite the apparent disquiet about Rudd’s past commentary on president-elect Donald Trump among some in Trump’s inner circle.Albanese is digging in against media speculation that Trump could demand Rudd’s withdrawal or that others in his administration could make the ambassador’s position untenable, insisting he will stay in the job no matter what.“That’s what we’d expect,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

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    “He’s Australia’s appointment,” Albanese said, speaking from the Apec summit in Peru. “And it says something about the importance of the United States that we have appointed a former prime minister. That’s a sign of how seriously we take this relationship, which is a relationship between our peoples based upon our common values.”Albanese declined to say whether Rudd should apologise for past remarks, which included social media posts calling him “the most destructive president in history” and a 2021 interview in which he described Trump in a 2021 interview as “the village idiot” and “not a leading intellectual force”.“We’re focused on the future, and I’m sure President Trump will be as well, and that is the important thing,” Albanese said.The emergence last week of video of the 2021 remarks this week coincided with a social media post from Trump’s now newly appointed deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, depicting sand running through an hourglass, above a screenshot of the congratulatory message Rudd had issued about Trump’s election win.But Albanese said Rudd had been doing “a terrific job” and would continue in the role.He praised the former prime minister’s work building bipartisan relationships and boosting Australia’s ties in the US capital.“Ambassador, Rudd has been working with people across the political spectrum. He attended both the Republican and the Democrat national conventions and engaged with people across the board. I know that he was in regular contact with the head of the Republican campaign committee as well, as well as the Democrats.”In a separate interview with Sky News, also from Peru, Albanese said his 10-minute congratulatory phone conversation with Trump had been “very constructive and positive” and Rudd was not mentioned.“He’s Australia’s ambassador to Washington, and he’s doing a very important job,” Albanese said. “The work that he did with Aukus was a difficult task to get that through the Congress and the Senate. But when I was there, one of the things that struck me was just how extensive the links that Kevin Rudd had developed at the US, Congress and the Senate were.” More

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      Senior Trump adviser suggests Rudd’s time as US ambassador could be up with hourglass gif

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      A senior adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump has fuelled speculation about the future of Australia’s ambassador to Washington, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, by reposting Rudd’s congratulatory statement to Trump on social media with a gif of an hourglass.The provocative time-is-running-out post by former Trump deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino reignited suggestions that the incoming president may prefer another Australian representative in Washington when he takes office in January.Scavino spoke at Trump’s now-infamous Madison Square Garden rally in New York ahead of the election and was billed as a “senior adviser”.A new video emerged earlier this week of Rudd in an interview in 2021 describing Trump as “a village idiot” and “not a leading intellectual force”. Rudd last week – following the US election – deleted old social media posts criticising Trump.There are no formal protocols for challenging the status of incumbent foreign diplomats upon a change of US administration.But Trump has already banished one high-profile diplomat from a significant ally in the past, effectively forcing the withdrawal of then-British ambassador Kim Darroch in 2019 after leaked cables revealed past personal criticisms of the president.Darroch’s situation was different to Rudd’s because the British ambassador’s criticisms were contemporary, not historical.Nevertheless, there is now concern in Australian government and diplomatic circles that the personal nature of some of Rudd’s past criticisms of Trump may be a bigger problem than first feared.

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      Former Australian ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos has urged the government not to withdraw Rudd because of the risk of appearing supine. But he also advised finding a way to publicly walk back Rudd’s criticisms of the incoming president.“It would not be a good look to suddenly just yank the ambassador out,” Sinodinos told ABC radio on Wednesday.“But what is important is two things: not only that the prime minister stand by the ambassador, but also the ambassador and the prime minister have got to explain maybe that those comments are inoperative, because circumstances have changed – that calling him all those names … that’s a bit sort of passé.”Sinodinos said the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and Rudd should seize the opportunity of the president-elect’s emphatic victory to recalibrate.“Because the president [elect] has demonstrated his capacity to win elections and to win an extraordinary mandate from the American people, the popular vote, as well as the electoral college and the and the Congress. So maybe he’s not as unsmart or the village idiot that some people think.”On Wednesday, the Australian opposition leader, Peter Dutton, appeared to endorse Rudd and praised his efforts.“It’s important that he does work in our country’s name,” Dutton told ABC radio. “He’s been a very effective contributor to public debate, particularly as a former prime minister. He is well respected, and I hope he’s able to form a relationship with the new administration, as he’s done with the current one.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhile highlighting the former prime minister’s “incredible work ethic”, evident in a meeting the pair had on his own recent trip to Washington, Dutton caveated his praise.“As you would expect, [Rudd’s] got an incredible work ethic, but he’s made disparaging comments and that’s an issue for the government to deal with,” he said.“People of both political types have gone to that position. They bring gravitas to the office and I hope that there can be good work done in our country’s name.”Former prime minister Tony Abbott downplayed Rudd’s criticisms and any risk of US intervention. Abbott said Rudd had done a good job and said some “injudicious things about the incoming president – but a lot of people have”.“[It would be] unusual for our closest ally to start being prescriptive about who can and can’t be our ambassador,” Abbott said in his podcast Australia’s Future with Tony Abbott.But he also warned Australia should be “very careful” about criticising a US president or ex-president.On Tuesday, Dutton had more actively entertained critical questions about Rudd’s future.“The ambassador has to have a functional working relationship with the administration, whether that’s a Democrat or Republican administration,” Dutton told reporters.. He also pointed to criticisms of Trump by Albanese and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong.Albanese has continued to back Rudd and said he remains the right person for the ambassador role. More

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene unite in push to free Julian Assange

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      Maga Republican and fierce Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene and leftwing Democratic firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have found common ground in freeing Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.The pair are among 16 members of the US Congress who have written directly to president Joe Biden urging the United States to drop its extradition attempts against Assange and halt any prosecutorial proceedings immediately.The group warns continuing the pursuit of Assange risks America’s bilateral relationship with Australia.“It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources, including documentary evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of the government,” the letter to Biden, first reported by Nine newspapers, states.“The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalising common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of the free press. We urge you to ensure that this case be brought to a close in as timely a manner as possible.”Assange remains in Belmarsh prison in London as he fights a US attempt to extradite him to face charges – including under the Espionage Act. The charges are in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.
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      In September, a cross-party delegation of Australian MPs, which included former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, teal independent Monique Ryan, Greens senators David Shoebridge and Peter Whish-Wilson, conservative Alex Antic and Labor’s Tony Zappia, travelled to America to meet with US representatives over Assange’s case.The group hoped to gain support from American lawmakers in their bid to have the pursuit of Assange dropped ahead of Anthony Albanese’s official visit to Washington.Since coming to power, the Albanese government has been more forward than its predecessors in pushing for Assange’s freedom, but so far the Biden government has rebuffed the calls.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlbanese confirmed he raised Assange’s case again during his meeting with Biden at the White House last month, but Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, urged the Australian government to increase the pressure.Shipton told Guardian Australia: “If this government can get back Cheng Lei from China, why is he so impotent when it comes to Julian and the USA?”With Assange’s avenues for legal appeal against the US extradition diminishing, his supporters fear for his life. More